It's 2010

Happy new year everybody! Wishing and hoping that the year 2010 bring you the best of everything.

They say that what you do on the first day of a new year, you would likely be doing for the rest of the year. Well, after we welcomed 2010 with all the noise we could muster (shouting at the top of our lungs and banging on the gates) and jumping around like crazy (so we'd all grow taller this year), the kids and I took turns at the Magic Sing karaoke. So I guess, the neighbors would have to bear with our family version of the Queen's "Somebody to Love" from hereon hence.

Since I finished season 1 of Dollhouse at around 3 a.m. (I watched it in my iPod while everyone else slept), I woke up around 12 noon today. Not a good sign if I want to be more productive this 2010. Less TV and less sleep means more time for other more important though not as much fun things. Then I had delicious left-overs from our media noche and some chocolates. I wouldn't mind having the chocolates everyday but if I see another left-over in the ref...

And of course, I couldn't resist spending more than a few minutes in Facebook you'd certainly be seeing me there more often. Everybody seems to be there. Does anyone still log on to the egroups? Maybe we should move the egroups to Facebook. Started feeling kinda guilty about that and about neglecting this blog. I've been a bad bad blogger and I hope to address that this year. Blog on! I hope somebody out there will still read me...seeing that almost everyone I know is more into Facebook nowadays.

In a few minutes, I will be logging off to actually scrap. Yey! I miss scrapping. My scrap room is clean and organized (a result of being OC the past few weeks) and I can't wait to make a creative mess in there again. I will not even attempt to count how many layouts I did last year. I hang my head in shame. This year, I promise to find time to scrap at least one layout a week. Not including this. One layout created on a monthly basis to highlight the month's activities, with Becky Fleck sketches. What could be easier? So bring it on, Project 12.

Speaking of projects, I miserably failed at my first Project 365 attempt, due to many factors, the least of them - my 5-year old digital camera dying out on me in October. So here's hitting the reset button. I hope to be able to do this religiously as it would also be a source of photos to scrap for my Project 12.

By the way, I am still enrolled in school and I am working on a few research projects so it will be crazy around here, but I am hopeful that I will be able to finish whatever I take on with flying colors, and I don't mean drug-induced ones. Hehehe.

So here's to a great start - wishing you all the best. Now excuse me while I go scrap with Sarah and Kahlo. Have fun!

I-Translate Mo

You know why I'm online so early... Well, I'm not really waiting to find out who gets eliminated today at the Scrappin Moms Idol contest. Nah...I'm doing online research. It's just accident that my fingers keep on refreshing a particular site.

And while I was "researching", I chanced upon Tim Holtz's schedule for CKU-Japan. That's the closest CKU comes to Manila, so mentally going through my list of friends in Japan, I started dreaming. But then I couldn't read the announcement. So I tried Google Translator and it gave me this:

2009 Workshop Iskedyul:

JULY 2009 Hulyo 2009
Carson Stamp Convention Carson stamp Convention
DEMO & MAKE/TAKE
DEMO & GUMAGAWA / TAKE
July 11th-12th , 2009 11-12 Hulyo, 2009
Casron, CA. Casron, CA.
{click here for more info.} (i-click dito para sa karagdagang impormasyon.)

The Queen's Ink
Ang Reyna ng tinta
August 15th-16th, 2009 Agosto 15-16, 2009
Savage, MD. Savage, MD.
{click here for more info.} (i-click dito para sa karagdagang impormasyon.)

Creative Escape
Creative makatakas
August 27th-29th, 2009 August 27th-29th, 2009
Chandler, AZ. Chandler, AZ.
{click here for more info.} (i-click dito para sa karagdagang impormasyon.)

SEPTEMBER 2009 Septiyembre 2009
Ink About It
Tungkol sa tinta Ito
August 11th-12th, 2009 August 11th-12th, 2009
Westford, MA. Westford, MA.
{click here for more info.} (i-click dito para sa karagdagang impormasyon.)

OCTOBER 2009 Oktubre 2009
Artful Voyage in Mexico
Higad maglayas sa Mexico
October 11th-18th , 2009 Oktubre 11th-18th, 2009
Mexico Mehiko
{click here for more info.} (i-click dito para sa karagdagang impormasyon.)

I'm especially interested in the caterpillar in Mexico workshop. Wonder if Tim Holtz used alcohol or distress inks. Maybe he hammered the poor bug to death using his textured hammer. Boink boink!

Somebody post the results already, please.

NOTE: In Tagalog, higad has nothing to do with art. LOL.

Summer Na!

The KiDS are officially out of school today, and I am looking forward to Scrap Jam with friends and having panizza at C'Italian this weekend. If you want to see food photos of what I intend to have a surfeit of tomorrow, go here. I already brought several friends here and they loved it, too.


Hurrah for summer!

Scrapping Where I Can

Arrggghhh...March is almost over, I can smell summer in the air (my skin practically sizzles in the heat), and yet, the KiDS still have classes! Most of my friends' children have been off on vacay since two weeks ago and yet here we are, still reviewing for final exams next week. Kinda feels like those last few days on your ninth month of pregnancy. Can we have it over and done with already?

I'm looking forward to lazy days at home when I don't have to get up at 5 in the morning and just enjoy time with the kids. Most especially, I look forward to scrapping in my own space, in my own time.

I am a work-on-one-project-at-a-time scrapper. Sure. I'm great at multi-tasking, but with scrapbooking, it has to be a linear thing. Print picture, select papers and embellishments, scrap, and don't go to bed until done. I hate having the sun rise on unfinished layouts.

But the last few weeks, I had to be a bit flexible if I wanted to scrap at all. Since we were spending most of the weeknights at the studio, I had to be creative. I had to learn to scrap in bed. I had to be content with knowing that I will not be able to finish a layout to my satisfaction, not when most of my stuff are back home. I had to learn to work on several layouts at a time.


And that's just what I did. The upside is, I've started on at least eight layouts. The downside, I haven't finished one. Maybe when summer officially starts in April, when we're just home, I can finally finish them.

In the meantime, DH has been more productive than I am. His first short film will be shown this Saturday, March 28, 2009 at the MDAFI in Antipolo City. Thirteen other short films by his cohorts will be shown. Doesn't his poster look great? I swear this guy can do anything he sets his mind to.


Watch out for this batch of talented filmmakers. They will be the best in the industry. Yabang ba? Hehehe. Seriously, many of them are already making names for themselves in television and the movies. DH, who is undoubtedly a freshman, sure is in good company.


Not to be outdone, I've been productive, too. In the kitchen. Well, all of us have to have our own creative outlets. DH's is movies, mine is food. The world needs both. Will share the goodies with you at my food blog.

It's Barbie's Birthday

And in honor of her 50th year, I am sharing with you an essay I wrote for Good Housekeeping. It was published (in a shorter and much expurgated form) last September 2008. This is the unedited version. The airport incident was cutoff from the published article. I knew it would be but I just couldn't resist adding it because 1) it's a true story, and 2) it was really hilarious.

Bringing Up Barbie

While we were pregnant with our first child, my husband and I agreed that if it will be a girl, we will never buy her a Barbie doll. We believed that Barbie is not really an appropriate toy for little girls. For one, she is not cuddly and we thought, would hardly raise caring feelings from our little girl. Two, we wouldn’t want to be inadvertently raising a fashionista with the Barbie clothes and accessories. Three, Barbie, we believed is a more appropriate toy for older kids who would enjoy dressing and undressing her with all those pretty clothes.

We also believed all the psycho-babble that Barbie will bring out inadequate feelings in our daughter, seeing how she (Barbie) is so perfect. Blonde hair, blue eyes, big breasts, small waist, wide hips, long curvy legs. (Really! Who looks like that? I never looked that way even pre-partum.) Our daughter was still in vitro and already we were worrying about her self-esteem. Plus, Barbie is a big commitment. You buy even the simplest Barbie doll and pretty soon you will have to buy into the whole package – clothes, accessories, play sets, cars and houses for little Miss Barbie.

And so we agreed. No Barbies for our would-be girls.

Our first child turned out to be a son. I am bothered that my husband and I never had a discussion about G.I. Joes. But that’s another story.

Anyway, it wasn’t too long before we had a second baby and this time it turned out to be a she. We bought the usual pink stuff for her, and thankfully, no Barbie. Success! All went well in her plastic doll-free world until she started pre-school. All the other girls in her class had Barbie bags, Barbie shoes and Barbie lunchboxes. They even had Barbie books in the school library. Much as we tried to shelter our child, she had to grow up one day and face peer pressure. That most misunderstood of all creatures – Barbie.

We never thought much of it as first. We thought Sarah was one happy child. She never asked us to buy her a Barbie doll. Until one day, we had a visitor in the house, and she told our guest, “You know what? I have a Barbie.” Our guest pretending to be interested in what a 4-year old has to say asked, “Really? What’s her name? (Yes, she really asked that.) Sarah just looked at her with a painful confused look on her face trying to deal with this disturbing fact that it seems not everyone knew Barbie.

Now we were more concerned that our child was playing with an imaginary Barbie than we were of the evils that actually owning a Barbie doll might bring. But still, we didn’t want to go all the way to actually buying into the whole enterprise. These dolls don’t come cheap as you know. So my husband came home one day, with a blonde blue-eyed Barbie knockoff. Except for the unusually big head, it had the same big hair, big breasts and big hips as the real thing. But never underestimate a child. Sarah took one look at her and promptly proclaimed, “That’s not Barbie.” “Oh, but this isn’t Barbie”, we tell her. “This is her cousin, Barba.” She looked at us with suspicion but she was more curious over the toy than figuring out her crazy parents. And then she was quite content to play with her doll.

Barely 24 hours later, Barba’s big head was nowhere to be found. Her breasts have been squeezed into her chest. And our little girl was bawling her heart out. It seems that in our pursuit to save money, we were actually going to be shelling out more. We had to get the real deal, which is more expensive but undoubtedly prettier and presumably more durable. My husband and I again had a discussion - what good are we as parents if we were to give in to something we swore would never be in our daughter’s toy box?

But then again, I saw how my daughter played with Barba. She certainly didn’t think of her as a fashion icon. She played role playing games with her. Barba was an older sister to her other dolls. She had Barba going to work as a teacher and doing mundane things as washing the dishes and doing laundry. Certainly at her age, she wasn’t thinking of being blonde, blue-eyed and sexy. She just played with the doll as she did any of her other dolls.

And so we gave in. We took Sarah to the toy store, and the awe and glee in her eyes were well worth the P500 Barbie. When our friends heard that we were fine with Barbie they started giving her Barbies for birthdays and Christmas. And soon, we had more Barbies than we could handle. It wasn’t as painful as we expected. But oh, do watch out for those little Barbie heels. So small and yet so painful if you stepped on them with bare feet.

When my sister in the U.S. learned that I no longer cringed from buying Barbies, she asked me to buy her the Manilena and regional Barbie dolls. She’s an avid Barbie collector and I even got her the more-expensive Patis Tesoro ones. I went to the US with a balikbayan boxful of local Barbies. I took pains putting different gift tags on the dolls just in case U.S. Customs questioned me about them. But the Patis Tesoro doll, I hand carried, as I didn’t want the box to be squished during transit.

At the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, where they ask you to turn on your cell phones and laptops, and search every nook and cranny of your hand carried items, the security lady took a lot of interest in my Barbie doll. She opened the box (oh, no! it’s no longer mint in box!), pulled Barbie out, removed her shoes, looked under her skirt, copped her breasts. My horror turned into amusement as I realized that even Barbie couldn’t escape the prerequisite body search.

Ah…the joy of playing with a Barbie doll. Sarah has a coterie of Barbies, paired up with Kens, and sister Kelly. She even has a grandmother. But the funny thing is, for all my worries, she plays with her dolls like she would a regular toy. The interest also easily wears off, and soon the Barbies are back in their boxes again minus those nasty heels which always seem to end up under my poor feet.

I still have to be persuaded to let her wear Barbie fashion though.

Down in the Doldrums

Anybody seen my scrapping mojo? If found, please inform me ASAP. I miss making layouts terribly.

And so to compensate for my inadequacies at that end, I have been visiting fellow scrappers' blogs. I am loving Blogger's new Blog List feature where I am immediately informed if my favorites have updated their blogs (see sidebar). Quite convenient when you have limited time to surf. I assure you I am inspired by the artistry and creativity everyone else is showing, but sadly, the impetus to create just isn't there.

So I thought I'd undertake the monumental task of organizing our library. I have a very simple system. I allotted shelves for My Books; DH's Books, Reference Books, and Children's Books, sorted by subject.

DH's books are easy cause he brought all his film/art books in his studio. Only his history books and Car Buyer magazines are here in the house.

I've also left the Children's Books under Sarah's supervision because and I quote, "I like to organize." That's putting it mildly. This girl can be so OC. She wants to arrange their books first by author, then within that category, by color. Ugh... What else can I expect from a girl who throws a fit when her food are touching each other on her plate? Anybody here watch Monk? His idiosyncracies are delightful, but in an 8-year old, they can be very very frustrating.

Organizing is really no hardship, except that it takes me a long time because I spend more time seating on the couch re-reading portions of books I've read before rather than actually moving them to their correct shelves. I arrange my books in two categories - Books I've Read and Books I have To Read. Sadly, the second category fills up most of my allotted shelves.

I should read more - at least one book a month. I'm off to a good start. Last January I finished Khaled Hosseini's "The Kite Runner." I watched the movie version, too. I recommend both to you. Currently, I am reading Bill Bryson's "In A Sunburned Country." Bryson is my favorite travel writer. Maybe when I'm done I'll watch the movie "Australia" for some visual feasts about this sunburned country down under.

In the meantime, I hope my mojo will be back soo. Even if only to make a layout in response to Manang Marissa's Kaya challenge. Sali din kayo ha? Para hindi ako batukan ng ate ko. Hehehe.

Culture Shock

Late Wednesday night, I found out that my MIL volunteered me yet again to another activity involving her organization. I was quite dismayed because 1) I had scheduled to attend a book launching at the Ateneo de Manila University, a book that took many years to see print, not for lack of effort on my part; and 2) she volunteered me to be an emcee in a dance competition at the U.P. Bahay ng Alumni. I hate having to talk in front of huge crowds. It may not be readily apparent, but I am glossophobic.

Needless to say, MIL prevailed, and I had to bail out of the book launching. I hope they still give me a complementary copy of the book on Community-Based Natural Resource Management. Not your average person's reading material, but it is an important collection of research and studies on Philippine CBNRM.


And so, it was with acute trepidation that I found myself in the huge hall of the Bahay ng Alumni, trying to establish a rapport with my co-emcee, who I was meeting for the first time. The occasion is the Luzon Sayawitugtog Bata, a dance drama competition on Philippine Myths and Legends, held by the International Organization of Folk Arts Philippines (IOFA) every two years. Frankly, I expected to be bored to tears.

It was quite a comedy of errors at first. I was given my cue cards and spiels, and at the last minute, the organizers changed the order of the program. Imagine me, standing there in the podium, working up the crowd to frenetic excitement (I was doing my best Pokwang impersonation) as I begin to introduce the first contestants, when I was cut short by the floor director, who said the judges had to be introduced first. Ugh! Talk about wrong timing. Only twenty minutes into the program and I was already wishing I was somewhere else.

But as the elementary students representing the different regions in Luzon performed, I paid rapt attention. I was, to say the least, awe-struck with the beauty and strength of their performances. The youth could perform with such spirit and verve. And only the very young cannot be self-conscious about being dyed dark brown, and being asked to wear afro wigs and g-strings.

I learned much about the beginnings of Vigan, the Christianization of Cagayan Valley, the simple life and culture of the Balugas (Aetas) of Tarlac (when I was a child, my siblings would scare me by saying the Balugas would come and put me in their bayong), the legend of Calamba - I never knew that the town derived its name from "kalan" and "banga" (clay stove and jar), the beginnings of Iriga City, the Cordillera Administrative Region's Romeo and Juliet in the legend of Gana-ac and Lupting, and last but not the least, the history of Pasig.

I wish I could have taken more photos or videos of the performances but absorbed as I was with the stories, I still had to do my duties as emcee. Which went far better than I would have expected as I was drawn into the importance of the event - the opportunity to showcase the relatively unknown stories of the different parts of the Philippines. It is indeed vital that we Filipinos, beginning with the very young, have a deeper appreciation of our diverse cultures and heritage.

Next year, IOFA will be holding the Visayas and Mindanao phases of the competition in Cebu. I hope I get invited to emcee again. If not, I will volunteer, if I have to twist my MIL's arm about it.

I Am...

addicted! LOL.

You are thoughtful and care very deeply for your family. A loving home is of great

importance to you and you always try to make people feel welcome. Although you have a great capacity to love, you also have a great capacity to hurt, so at times you can be

sensitive. You're firm when you need to be, but people trust your judgment and

appreciate the kind way you always handle things.

You Know You're Addicted to Twilight When...

• you eat kilograms of candy a day so that it will make your blood smell sweeter
• you hyperventilate when you watch the movie trailer (for the thousandth time)
• you couldn't scrap until you finished ALL 4 books (attention, Marj)
• you pour glitter over your boyfriend/DH
• you convince your friends to read it too (if they haven't) so you they won't think you're crazy at the theater
• you read and re-read the books lest you miss something
• you saved Midnight Sun in your hard drive and can't wait for it to be published
• you downloaded the 40 minute free audio book in iTunes.
  
• you name your new Maltese puppy Jasper (I would've gone for Edward but I have a nephew with that name. It would've been confusing in the house.)
• you wish someone you know is a vampire
• you wish you were a vampire
• you have dreams about the books
  

And then, here's something I picked up from Tna.

Normal guys vs Edward Cullen

A Normal Guy would say: “I think I am falling for you.”
Edward Cullen would say: “The Lion fell in Love with the Lamb”

A normal guy would pick a random song from a random artist and dedicate it to you.
Edward Cullen would sing you a song he wrote for you while playing the piano.

While you are both out for dinner, a normal guy wouldn’t keep his eyes off the sexy waitress.
Edward Cullen wouldn’t even notice the waitress was a female.

A normal guy, while driving, would keep one hand on the wheel and one hand on the radio. Edward Cullen, while driving, would keep one hand on the wheel and the other attached to yours.

A normal guy wouldn’t care or notice if you had nightmares.
Edward Cullen would sing until your nightmares went away.
“Do you want me to sing to you? I’ll sing all night if it will keep the bad dreams away.”

A normal guy buys you flowers and chocolates.
Edward Cullen buys you a car.

Lessons from the Twilight Series

Thanks to Candy, I was able to read Stephenie Meyers' books, Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn, including the unfinished draft of Midnight Sun. It took me six days. I would have finished earlier but once school started last Wednesday, I had less time to read. I do have three demanding KiDS whose seemingly endless needs I have to look after.

It was a good read. Not quite like Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles (majority of which I read, too) but interesting in its own way. When I'm not too busy, I will write a review in my other blog. Right now, let me just savor the books before I move on to the next read.

I am currently chewing on these meanderings:

1) Covens exist, except that in the human world, they are called cliques. And they can be as exclusive and secretive as vampire covens.

2) Bloodsucking leeches not only refers to vampires and the more common leech, they can also refer to humans who suck your emotions dry. (I'd say money, too, but I don't seem to have much of that nowadays... Emotions, I've got plenty of.)

3) People who look sinister may actually be good. And angelic-looking people may really be the epitome of evil. I should know. I've met one too many of them.

4) Dinuguan has never tasted so good.

5) Nothing like sharing good books with friends so you can discuss them together. (Thanks, Candy.) Hmmmm...anyone interested in forming a book club? The only requirements would be:
a) you are not a member of any clique/coven;
b) you do not exhibit any leech-like tendencies;
c) you are at least 90% good; and
d) you don't care what people eat as long as it's not you.

Candy and I have a date to watch the movie when it opens on November 21. It will be a kilig fest I'm sure. LOL.

I'm Still Alive!!!

At least, until my laptop's battery runs out of juice.

I can't believe it's been more than a month since my last post, and that there's only 81 days before Christmas. So much has happened in the past weeks and I don't know where to begin. Right now, I am just so giddy that my laptop is cooperating and there's strong clear signal from the neighbors. Hahaha.

Another reason to be giddy (or not) is that I'm in the Top 10 of the Scrappin' Moms Idol contest. Man, you can't believe the stress I went through week after week just to be able to submit a layout. And I don't mean creating the LO, but wondering whether I would be able to submit it in time, if at all. My technological problems didn't stop at DH's busted laptop, it extended to mine, and then to the internet connection at home, and don't ask me about the cellphone which he conveniently ran over with his car. LOL.

The stories I can tell you...if my battery doesn't ran out soon. I'd plug my laptop in, but I am actually sitting in my MIL's porch. On a big rock. I can actually feel moisture seeping in my butt. OK, try to stop the imagery. Sorry about that. But when time is of the essence, editing flies out the window.

But anyway, I'd like to thank everyone who left messages here, in my mobile, e-mail. Yes, I'm still alive, thanks for checking if I was well. I haven't been able to check the PS e-group for weeks. I'm sure my inbox is full to the brim and Cookie tells me I missed some great sales. That's ok, it's not I have money to spend anyway. Hahaha. Did I mention I was giddy?

It's actually DH and my 11th wedding anniversary today. I'm thinking of making an LO called "Once." Or Once, the Spanish word for eleven. Could also mean the Filipino vernacular "onse" as in na-onse niya ako 11 years ago. (He tricked me eleven years ago.) LOL. DH is not yet here, he took over Napoleon Abueva's class in Fine Arts while Tito Billy is recuperating from his stroke. Now that is truly an honor, and he won't let me hear the end of it.

Last year I posted some behind the scenes stories about our weddings. (Yes, with an s.) I had fun reminiscing, you might want to join me in relieving the comedy...errr...the romance. Click here , here, and here. Even with such inauspicious beginnings, I can truthfully say we are still going strong. Thank, God.

My DH might not be overly sweet or publicly demonstrative but he has his moments. Last night, as I prepared to go to bed, he came in and said in a complaining voice. "Your laptop has a virus." I go, what? What did you do? I just updated the virus program. Nag...nag...nag...And then he tells me, "I don't know. An image popped out and it got stuck there." I stood up reluctantly. It is after all, my laptop and I have to do damage control, and I saw this.


Now isn't that sweet? We (the whole family) were in an internet cafe that night and he knew I was on tenterhooks waiting for the announcement to be posted. When we arrived back in his studio, he turned on the laptop and searched for this. Thank God for the neighbor's 24-hour free wi-fi, I was able to see this before I went to bed.

I was sad though that Diane didn't make it to the Top 10. She and Cookie have been very helpful in texting me daily updates about the challenges since I couldn't always go online. They were my lifelines and support through this challenge.

But everyone did a great job. So congratulations to the original 27 and good luck to all those who made it to the finals.

Happy 2nd Birthday Blog!

Well, I had planned to bake cupcakes for today's anniversary, but DH and the KiDS just didn't give me time for that. So, no cupcakes and candles today.

But still, two years and 216 posts later, readers still come read me. That is worth acknowledging. Even if I am in not in a celebratory mood right now, the current Idol challenge uppermost in my mind. Three days since it's been announced and all I still have is the germ of an idea brewing in my mind. I hope to get into the groove of things before the night is over. Either that or spend another sleepless night. LOL.

So once again, this is going to be short and sweet. Thank you, dear readers, for keeping me company all through these years.

Just Checking In

It used to be that I scrapped whenever I can. Now it's surf the net, blog, or answer e-mail whenever I can. There's a very limited window for me to do so - only when DH is in class and he has no presentation, or when he's in the bathroom. The latter being the case now. :-) He has commandeered my laptop over a month ago and I haven't been able to fully reclaim it yet.

So before he comes back, let me thank everyone who's been visiting my blog loyally, even if I have no new posts. Thanks to those who take the time to leave comments. And am most specially grateful for the encouraging words of support for the Idol 2. By golly, have you seen the new challenge? I've only done two cards in my whole scrapping life and now am expected to make a POP UP card. And this is just Round 1. It boggles the mind. I'm almost afraid to think of what's in store for us next, assuming I make it through this round.

I've received tags and awards from a number of people. Rest assured, I will be returning the kind gesture very soon. Really. Thank you for your patience.